Paper Title
Changing and Shifting Cultural Practices and Self-Identifications of Kurdish and Turkish Catering and Retail Business Owners in London

Abstract
This paper focuses on the changing and shifting cultural practices and identifications of Kurdish and Turkish (KT) communities in London. It explores the research question that how the occupational shift from industrial waged labour to self-employment effect the identity construction processes of Kurdish and Turkish business owners in catering and retail sectors in London. Depending on a field study consisting of 65 in-depth interviews, including, restaurant, off-licence, kebab-shop, coffee-shop, supermarket, wholesaler owners and various community organisations, this paper draws the conclusions that identification of shared interests and interest alignment in Britain promote bonds of solidarity, new forms of ethnic attachment, which is not salient in the home country and may be helpful to overcome various problems of the KT communities in London. The study is structured in four sections. The first section sets out the contextual link between British political economy and KT shared interest and experiences in business formation in London. The second section sets out gaps in migrant entrepreneurship literature and explains the rationale for adopting a dynamic, shifting and non-essentialist view on migrant entrepreneurship. The third section discusses the methodological approach. The fourth section presents the empirical findings. The paper concludes with key research findings with implications for researchers and practitioners. Keywords - constructivism; entrepreneurship gender roles; interest alignment; Kurdish and Turkish Communities in London